Climate Week NYC 2026: Heads Down, Moving Forward

A Quiet Confidence Takes Hold

If you followed the headlines heading into Climate Week, you might have expected an industry in retreat. The rooms told a different story. Companies weren't debating whether to keep going; they were comparing notes on how to hit their next milestone and move beyond lighthouse projects into programs that scale.

That confidence comes from a more mature understanding of the work itself. The industry has let go of the search for a single silver bullet and embraced the reality that there are countless viable, scalable solutions ready to put to work. Companies are also planning with a clearer sense of how long agricultural transitions take to show up in their emissions, which is leading them to start working with farmers earlier and more deeply.

Arthur Gillett, HowGood's Chief Research Officer and not usually one for American football metaphors, captured the spirit of the week with a fitting analogy: "We're not trying to throw the ball down the field for a Hail Mary. We're moving the chains." It's a ground game now, and progress is showing up where lasting change actually happens: in procurement, finance, and day-to-day operations.

‍

Data Becomes the Common Language

Just a few years ago, granular product carbon footprints (PCFs) were seen as ambitious, even experimental. "Granular product carbon footprints are the norm," said Ethan Soloviev. "They're expected now." Detailed, product-level data has become the baseline for how food companies understand and act on their emissions.

Retailers are a big reason why. Walmart led conversations at multiple events about engagement across its supply chain, and Aldi stepped forward with new public commitments. Ahold Delhaize and Walmart also teamed up with PACT for a session on standardizing product carbon footprinting across their brand portfolios, a sign that the industry is moving toward a shared approach to PCFs rather than a patchwork of methods. Their message was consistent: that data is what unlocks Scope 3 decarbonization through regenerative agriculture.

That demand is rippling upstream. CPG brands and ingredient suppliers are feeling the pull for PCFs from their customers, and increasingly, they're wanting it for themselves. The shift is visible in how programs are designed, too. Initiatives that once focused on allocating suppliers' company-wide emissions are moving toward footprints that reflect each individual material purchased. In food and beverage, reduction runs through Scope 3, and that requires knowing every ingredient and having a plan for each one.

New frameworks, including SBTi FLAG and the GHG Protocol's Land Sector and Removals Standard, have been absorbed with a remarkably steady hand. What's driving the industry's maturity, in Arthur Gillett's words, is "good people, heads down, doing the work." And notably, there was little talk of waiting on consumers to solve this at the shelf. The industry has embraced carbon as a business lever it owns.

‍

Collaboration Replaces Pressure

Shared data makes something else possible: shared plans. Across the week, we saw grocers, CPGs, ingredient suppliers, and distributors aligning around common goals rather than pushing demands down the chain. As Alexander Gillett put it, the prevailing attitude is that "this isn't a fight." It's how the whole value chain gets on the same plan and moves forward together.

That spirit showed up among sustainability leaders, too. Leaders still building internal buy-in sat alongside peers who had already made the case, openly sharing how they framed it around risk and ROI. That kind of generosity turns individual wins into industry-wide momentum.

Nowhere was collaboration more tangible than in the relationship between buyers and farmers. In an intimate Regen House session called the Regenerative Procurement Reality Check, farmers and procurement leaders sat down face to face. A chief procurement officer from a multibillion-dollar global company offered the farmers in the room a simple question: "How long do you need? Three years? Five years? Seven years?" Long-term contracts, once seen as a leap, are becoming a starting point for the industry’s most advanced players, and they’re showing the rest of the market what is possible. 

Capital Follows the Work

With better data and stronger partnerships in place, the money is beginning to move. Conversations about financing regenerative agriculture felt more concrete this year, focused on real deal structures rather than hypotheticals.

Compeer Financial and PepsiCo showcased RegenLend, a program that helps farmers access equipment for regenerative transitions with more affordable capital, and invited others to help expand it. A major global dairy cooperative shared how it partnered with Swedish retailers who agreed to pay more for significantly lower-carbon milk, moving over a billion liters with roughly 30% lower emissions. 

Blended finance, where multiple partners share the cost of transition, is filling the remaining gaps. The distance between the people working the land and the people measuring at corporate headquarters is shrinking, and that makes it more achievable than ever to get projects over the line.

‍

Where to Put Your Next Dollar

So what does this mean for a sustainability or procurement leader heading into next year with a flat budget? We asked each of our leaders where they would invest.

• Arthur Gillett: Prove ROI, redefined. Sustainability progress earns stronger relationships with customers and retailers. Make those rewards concrete, and back the partners doing the real work.
• Alexander Gillett: It's no longer "can we," it's "will we." Tell the suppliers producing lower-carbon and regenerative ingredients that you want more. Many are available at the same price point, and once you factor in the cost of carbon, they can even save you more money. 
• Nina DePalma: Choose one thing and see it through. Double down on a single program so you have a clear story to tell, backed by tangible results that bring others on board.
• Ethan Soloviev: Follow the lowest cost of carbon. With PCFs and a marginal abatement cost curve (MACC) built on supplier-specific data, teams can buy the same product, at the same price, with lower carbon. We're seeing more and more examples of this in HowGood’s Reduction Network.

The thread running through all four answers is the same one that ran through the week: the tools are ready, the partners are at the table, and the work is underway. Now it's about doing more of it, together.

Join Us Next Week: Scope 3 Reduction in Action

The momentum continues. Join us on Tuesday, October 6, 2026 for our next webinar on Scope 3 carbon reduction, featuring our partners from Danone, who will share how they're hitting their targets.

‍